Bellwood-Antis came into their game with Juniata Valley looking for their second win of the year and second in the Juniata Valley League. Coming off a loss at home to Bishop Guilfoyle, B-A was looking to even up their home record at 1-1.
Juniata Valley is well known for their three point shooting and Coach Tim Keech was looking to shut down the Hornet’s ability to get open looks.
“It’s no surprise that Juniata is going to shoot the three, but I’d like to hold them under five made.”
B-A’s tough D and aggressive play helped keep that goal close to the mark that Coach wanted.
First quarter action finally picked up when Corey Lightner of Juniata Valley got a lay-up with 5:38 left in the quarter. Paul Greiner dropped in his first three pointer of the day with 4:40 left to put B-A up, 5-2. Greiner came right back 40 seconds later and drops in another 3 to put B-A up by six. JV comes right back with a Hall long ball to come back within three 8-5 with 3:30 left. Scoring died off a little towards the end of the quarter and B-A held the lead 12-9 at the end of one quarter of play.
Borst opened the second quarter, adding three free throws after being fouled on a three point attempt to make the score 15-14 with 7:10 left. Borst then drained a deep three to give Juniata Valley their first lead of the night, 17-15. With 4:42 left Mike Blazier of B-A grabbed two offensive rebounds and added the lay-up to make the score 21-18 in favor of the Devils.
Borst got a steal with 2:25 left and drained another long ball to his total to tie the score at 21. The Hornets jumped back into the lead and extended it 25-21, after a Hall steal for a lay-up, with 32 seconds left in the half. The score going into the half was 26-22.
Foul trouble was a major issue for Juniata Valley at the half, with two of their starters picking up three fouls each. Bellwood-Antis only had three team fouls at the break. B-A also spent most of the game in the bonus, going to line 31 times before the night was done.
Greiner dropped in his third and final trey of the night pulling B-A within one point, 26-25 with 7:34 left in the quarter.
After Lightner dropped in a three pointer to make it 32-26, Coach Keech takes a timeout to talk to his guys, with 3:45 left in the third. Greiner responded after the timeout with a steal and a lay-up to make it 32-28 with 3:03 left.
B-A was down 34-30 when they got six free throws after back to back three point fouls by JV. B-A made three of those six shots to make it 37-33 with 1:11 left in the third. With 30 seconds to go in the quarter, L.J. Seidel made a nice cut to the basket and scored the bucket to make the score at the end of three periods, 37-35.
Fourth quarter action was fast and furious. The nets were set ablaze as both teams dropped in basket after basket.
Only two points separated the two teams when the madness started. Early in the fourth when Blue Devil Aaron Bell appeared to make a three, but the official called his toe on the line, therefor making it a two-pointer to tie the score at 37.
With 5:52 left and the score still tied, Paul Greiner stepped in and drew an offensive charge to get the ball back into the hands of the Blue Devils. Greiner came down on offense and made a fantastic basket amid crowd of defenders to put B-A up by two, 39-37. B-A added another basket, but Juniata Valley answered back with five points in a row to tie the game at 42 with 4:44 left.
The Bellwood-Antis gymnasium erupted with Bellwood-Antis going on an 8-0 run including a pair of three’s by Bell and McClellan, and a lay-up, with McClellan adding the lay-up. This run encouraged the Juniata coach to call a timeout and try to slow down the B-A offense with 3:42 left in the game.
Bellwood and Juniata traded off basket for the rest of the game and B-A held on to win 59-52.
Coach Keech feels very good about his club right now being 2-1 in the JVL and 2-2 overall.
“This was a very important game for us to establish ourselves in the JVL,” said Keech. “We had to come out and play well at home and I thought we played good defense and rebounded fairly well and we took advantage of what [Juniata Valley] was giving us. It took us almost until Christmas last year to get out second win so I’m happy with where we are right now.”
B-A’s 8-0 run really opened up the game for the Devils. It got the crowd into the game even more, and it made Juniata Valley almost get into panic mode. Coach Keech felt that the run they went on really helped his kids get focused.
“The thing I like was in the second half the kids didn’t let Juniata Valley pull away,” said Keech. “We were down and the kids coming off the bench came in with fresh legs and played hard and got us back into the game and that’s what we really needed at that point.”
Paul Greiner again scored in double digits with a game high 21. Besides Greiner B-A also had Bell (13) and McClellan (11) jump into the double digits tonight.
“The thing that I liked about them tonight is, we didn’t force things,” Keech explained. “They took shots that came to them and didn’t look to try and force things. We ran the offense and if the shot was there, they stepped up and made the shot.”
Bellwood went to the charity stripe tonight 31 times, but only made 19 of those 31. Coach Keech is still looking for improvement from the line.
“Sixty-one percent for the team is not good enough for me. I think we should be somewhere up around 74-80% for the team. We’re good shooters,” exhorted Keech, “but just can’t seem to make foul shots. We’re going to continue to work with the kids at practice and look to see better results in our next game.”
The Bellwood Jayvees came out winners as well going on a 17-3 run to pull out a close one, 38-36.
Bellwood’s next game is the makeup game with Glendale on Saturday at Bellwood. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. for JV’s and 7:30 for Varsity. Bellwood-Antis 59 Juniata Valley 52
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – McClellan 3 4-4 11, Bell 3 6-8 13, DeArmitt 1 2-4 5, Greiner 7 4-7 21, Blazier 2 1-2 3, Seidel 1 0-0 2, Delgrosso 0 1-3 1. TOTALS 17 19-31 59
JUNIATA VALLEY – Gildea 0 0-0 0, Borst 3 4-5 13, Lightner 8 0-1 20, Boyd 1 0-0 2, Beatty 1 0-0 2, Hall 3 2-4 9, DeVore 2 2-4 6, Burkey 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 8-14 52.
Score By Quarters
Bellwood-Antis 12 10 13 24 – 59
Juniata Valley 9 17 11 15 – 52
Three point goals: Bellwood-Antis 6 (Greiner 3, DeArmitt 1, Bell 1, McClellan 1).
Juniata Valley 8 (Lightner 4, Borst 3, Hall 1).
